Two-sport stars do not always choose baseball, but those who do tend to cite the better financial prospects from the player's perspective, writes USA Today's Gabe Lacques. Diamondbacks prospect Archie Bradley, for example, says it was hard to turn down the chance to be "a legend" by playing quarterback for Oklahoma, but his awareness of the lack of guaranteed money and attrition in football led him to take a $5MM signing bonus. Billy Hamilton and Carl Crawford are other players quoted in the article who do note regret their choice. "Look, there's way more money in baseball," says Cubs president Theo Epstein. "We have to do a better job as an industry in promulgating that fact." Or, as Bradley puts things, "obviously, guaranteed money is never a bad thing."
Here are a few more stray notes from the day:
- Longtime Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter says he is at peace with his decision to hang up his spikes, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The 38-year-old says that, after working out over the winter, he knew it was time: "It's not going to work," he realized. "No matter how hard I push it's just not going to happen." Carpenter and GM John Mozeliak are still sorting out what role he will play in the organization going forward.
- Veteran hurler Joel Pineiro is still working on his comeback, tweets Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com. He showed off his form a few days back in front of at least a dozen teams' representatives. The 35-year-old righty has played in parts of twelve MLB campaigns, posting a lifetime 4.41 ERA over 1,754 1/3 innings, but has not pitched in the bigs since 2011.
- Another familiar arm, Aaron Cook, is now pumping the brakes on his own attempt at a return, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com. Though he is not retiring, Cook is reportedly unlikely to pitch in the coming season. The 35-year-old has a career stat-line not unlike that of Pineiro, with a 4.60 ERA over 1,406 1/3 frames in parts of 11 seasons. After developing into a solid innings-eater in his late twenties, Cook's production took a distinct downturn over the 2010-12 campaigns.
This proves money is everything.
Not necessarily. A 5 million dollar bonus is an extreme example.
Thinking back now, obviously not everyone chooses baseball either.
The pros vs. college decision is also made more complicated by the fact that an athlete who picks the pros and then fizzles out isn’t likely to get a college scholarship anymore. Though my alma mater gave a football scholarship to a 26 year old freshman who had spent a few years playing minor league baseball. That’s a rare example.
But I don’t think that’s a big enough motivator, as long as you are smart with the money. You can go to a pretty decent public school for less than $50K total. Many of these players though probably spend the money away too fast though.
I’m sure in many cases it’s not a big enough motivator. And you’re not wrong about public schools, but I think it would play a factor if schools like Stanford or Vanderbilt are involved. In order to go to a decent public school for 50k total, you’d likely need to be a resident of the state that the school was in. Which is fine for many, but it does limit your options.
IMO many people are way too picky in regards to the school. Unless you have a very specialized major then you should be able to find an acceptable school in your state. And ideally you want your ML career to work out, so you are just looking for a fallback.
Remember Chris Weinke? Florida State Heisman Trophy winner at the age of 26*. Went there after 6 years in the Jays system.. I am sure there are many cases similar minus the Heisman Trophy! If their eligible for play, then I don’t see why a college would pass up on an athlete.
Yes, the situation way better in baseball. If you get drafted high out of high school you got millions of dollars that can hopefully set you up for life. Whereas football you have to go to college for at least 3 years, and try not to get injured, and there is tons of injuries in football. Then you have to hope you get drafted, and the draft isn’t as long. Not to mention that life after is probably better in mlb, football players get a ton of head injuries, whereas MLB you hopefully more arthritis.
Also MLB contracts are guaranteed and tend to be much better.
I’m surprised Cook has lasted as long as he has with his K/9 numbers
So the teams know that big money is a way to keep talent in baseball and away from other sports, yet they artificially limit the amount of money they can spend on signing bonuses. Smart.
It’s not just about the draft. No other sport has players signing $200 million contacts guaranteed.